precise pain relieving heat patch activates sensory receptors. it helps block pain signals for deep penetrating relief you can feel precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. tracking earl, the one-time hurricane leaves parts of the

northeast powerless and underwater. force of nature, a strong earthquake levels parts of new zealand. there's a good side to the story amid this debris. even miraculous you could say. new jobs numbers. why some say there's a silver lining. but when will companies really start to hire? plus -- he said his heart is still beating but he's not been breathing for the last half hour. >> so how a mother's hug revived her dead newborn son. you're going to hear from that mom today. what a story that is. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt. to the relief of many, tropical storm earl has moved away from the massachusetts coast this morning. earl unleashed rain and wind last night around cape cod and martha's vineyard. it wasn't as intense as many anticipated. right now the storm continues moving north and it is making land fall on the coast of nova scotia in canada. nbc's kevin tibbles is watching

things from his point in rock port, massachusetts. kevin, looks pretty nice there this morning, right? >> reporter: alex, it's a beautiful day here in rock port. i don't know if i'm supposed to be embarrassed to say that to you. i feel a little bit embarrassed being out here outside talking about this monstrous category 4 earl hurricane that is basically category 4 wimp when it comes to the coastline of massachusetts. i don't want to get ahead of myself because we don't know what's happening up in nova scotia really except the rain started there. this storm kept far away from cape ann where i'm talking to you from today in rockport. a lot of the activities put on hold because of the storm for the long weekend here are now back on today. and my only real advice to people who perhaps were scared away from coming down to the sea shore would be to hop in the car. it is a lovely day. and i'm not going to be the only one eating all the salt water taffy here.

i would suggest coming down to rockport. it's a beautiful day down here. you know, it's sort of tough doing a news story on this big hurricane that stayed well off shore. we had rain overnight. but it's actually breezy and a lovely summer day. >> and no reports of damage anywhere? >> reporter: no. we spoke to the police this morning. they sort of plightly said to us that we were barking up the wrong tree when it came to talking about damage. i told you earlier about my son who lives in halifax. i just got off the phone from him. i woke him from his college slumber on a saturday morning. he looked out the window and said it was windy and rainy. but it's no worse than a rainy day in chicago. so there you go. >> you're going to have to send him or $20 or something for helping you with your news gathering. >> i'll be having a lobster roll on your behalf, alex. >> oh, good. thank you very much, kevin tibbles. thank you for the update.

nbc mooe meeteorologist bil karins is following earl. >> we have a weather spot in halifax now. it's perfect. they're going to go through the storm in the next two hours. let's show you storm itself. the last rain bands exited bangor, maine and bar harbor now. the rain will take another two or three hours. that will clear your location. you can see we now are watching land fall there in nova scotia of a strong tropical storm. we're going to get tree damage and minor structural damage. an update from our friends in canada, they're still calling this a hurricane. they're calling it a hurricane land fall and we're calling it a tropical storm. as far as it looks on satellite presentation, you can see it racing off the new england coast. look at the clear skies back to massachusetts, even areas in new hampshire and now clear by this afternoon all of maine will be baking in the sunshine also. here's a look at the wind field of 70 miles per hour. clearly just about off the coast of even maine. only nova scotia is going to

deal with a tropical storm force winds. so the bottom line today is the storm exits and the seas will be calming down. we still have 15-foot waves in the gulf of main, nine-foot waves off the gulf of nantucket. you notice off the jersey shore and long island, the waves are now down to the five to six to eight foot range. the biggest threat is the wave action goes down is the rip current. that's where the holes in the sand that are left by the storm as it departs. be careful swimming from the lifeguards, of course. as far as the storm goes, it will race through the canadian maritime this afternoon and then completely dissipate. people are already asking me since the peak of hurricane season, what is next? well, gaston dissipated. i think we'll be dealing with a tropical storm on wednesday or thursday. at this point it doesn't look to be all that strong. so we get a little bit of a break here. it's good. >> good. because fiona broke apart, too.

for the latest on earl and the rest of your holiday weekend forecast, go to weather.com. officials in new zealand are still assessing the damage this morning of a major earthquake rocked the country's second largest city. that quake measured 7.0 and centered on the south island west of christ church. new zealand's prime minister says it could be month before the full extent of the damage is known. nina desantos is live with us. what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning to you, too, alex. the late sest that a state of emergency is being declared in christ church, new zealand's south island, amid concerns that unstable buildings and rubble could fall on passer's by. there is concerns of strong after shock that hit the city since the quake hit in the early morning of the hours. a kerr fcurfew has been imposed keep people from looting. miraculo

miraculously, those saying that nobody was killed. two people were injured, though, as a result of falling class and masonry while the buildings were shaking. the quake didn't prove to be fatal, mainly because many people were thankfully asleep in their beds when the disaster struck. that doesn't mean that people weren't terrified. >> oh, my gosh. well, the shake lasted probably over a minute. we got no power. we've got no water. >> where are you going? >> up as far as we can go to get away from -- in case there is a tsunami. >> what about your house? >> pretty scary. >> well, the damage has been immense. he is also speculating that not one single center could be left in some way untouched by the shaking once they had the chance to, as you say, assess the damage. one building did burst into flames after a gas pipe leaked. generally, authorities have

managed to act pretty quickly and restored power and water. one thing i should point out, though, it is quite ominous is that whether forecasters have been saying we could see gale force winds hitting christ church within the next 24 hours, not welcomed news for these shaken inhabitants. alex? >> absolutely. that would not be welcomed in the least. thank you very much. right now the damage blowout preventer at the well that sent millions of gallons of crude in the gulf is being brought up to the surface. bp successfully replaced that damaged preventer yesterday. no oil or gas was seen leaking during the provider. the process to lift the old cap to the surface could take 24 to 36 hours. a welcomed change of pace for the u.s. stock market. wall street has closed out the first winning week in a movement the dow jones jumped 128 points yesterday continuing a sharp turn around from last month's ugly performance. investors may have been earn couraged by yesterday's jobs

report. although the unemployment rate grew to 9.6%, august did see the addition will 67,000 private jobs and that number was better than expected. little doubt about the nation's economy that it's still struggling. today president obama offered his take on why things could be far worse. in his weekly address, the president credited his administration's policies for holding off a much deeper crisis. >> the steps we've taken to date have stopped the bleeding. and investments in roads and bridges and high speed railroads that will lead to hundreds of thousands of jobs in the private sector, emergency steps to prevent the layoffs of hundreds of thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers. >> nbc's mike viqueira is at the white house. good saturday morning. we heard the president's comments. they come up on the latest heels of the jobs report. it shows unemployment actually ticking up by .1%. so what does the white house have planned to try and address that anxiety out there?

>> reporter: right, it's a prab f problem for democrats and the millions of people out of work. the arguments are becoming familiar and taking on a political context. we're only two weeks out from a midterm election. many believe they're going to lose the majority in the house of representatives. a cataclysmic event for those in the white house and capitol hill. now a chance they could lose the senate as well. we cannot go back to the republican economic policies that got us into this mess to begin with. but the numbers are just not helping out. unemployment ticking up .1% to 9.6%. the president paking tmaking thf it saying we added private sector jobs. but there were public sector jobs that went away, the temporary census jobs and a number of people coming back into the labor market driving that unemployment rate up. it expected to stay at -- in the nines for the foreseeable future. the president making that hard pivot to the economy after a

week of foreign policy, he travels to milwaukee on monday for a speech, labor day, to the afl-cio. wednesday, it's billed as a major economic address in cleveland that he's back here at the white house next friday for a press conference where the economy is expected to dominate. al snechl. >> ok >>al snec alex? >> thank you. we're hearing from an australian mother who is calling her infant son a miracle baby. in late march, she gave birth to twins, baby girl emily and baby boy jamie after 27 weeks. soon after birth doctors declared jamie dead. kate helped bring him back to life by using a method known as kangaroo care which involves holding the baby close against the chest. the entire family talked about the amazing experience on the "today" show. the mother described the moment the doctor first told her that her baby wasn't alive. >> he sat down on the bed and explained how he died. he said his heart is still beating but he's not been breathing for the last half hour. you know, his heart will

eventually stop. so you have a couple minutes to say good-bye and that's it. >> oh, my gosh. i can't even imagine what was going through your mind when you put him on your chest. did you think -- did you think for a second that maybe there would be some -- as we call, kangaroo care, some transference of energy. had you heard of that before? >> i heard about that years before. a mother with a very premature baby, keeping the baby warm and stimulating. >> you're smiling there. a lot of people wouldn't be smiling. >> he was moving and starting to breathe. >> but the doctor told you that was a reflex. >> yeah, just reflex. enjoy it while you can. >> you were enjoying it. but you had hope. >> by that stage, yeah, we did. we think maybe he was in shock. it was a bit too much intervention. he was very early and taking his own sweet time in coming around. >> the twins are 5 months old now and both doing well. 9/11, nine years later.

it's not clear whether president obama will head to ground zero. can he avoid any political leftout left over from the mosque controversy? also, feeding frenzy. lifeguards on alert after this massive school of sharks is spotted. that entire darkness right there, sharks. we're going to tell where you that s plus, they're almost the real thing. how tribute bands are one of the few areas in music business still striking a chord with consumers. [ male announcer ] at ge capital, we're out there every day with clients like jetblue -- financing their fleet, sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america. after 25 years in the aviation business, i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? take one of the big ones out? nah.

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canada's east coast is feeling what is left of tropical storm earl this morning. the storm is now making land fall in nova scotia. officials are warning it can still cause sea surges and localized flooding. coast of new england, though, caught a glancing blow from the storm. it was enough to send ten to 12 foot high surf at nantucket and

martha's vineyard. paul goodloe is in massachusetts for us. good morning, paul. what impact did earl leave by you? >> reporter: really not a whole lot. that's the good news. here again in chatham we have the strongest wind gusts around -- yeah, 37 miles per hour. that is just below tropical storm force winds. i have a hand held wind meter in my hand. the last couple minutes or, so winds disgusting around 22, 23 miles per hour. and we're expecting that throughout the day. but as you see overhead, nothing but blue sky. people are returning to the beaches here as well. we picked up a couple inches of rain across the cape and the islands as well. roughly two to five inches of rain. generally two to three. but in terms of the wind gust, as earl passed by, weakened down to a tropical storm. so nantucket island, 54 to 58 mile-per-hour wind gusts, that's the strongest as earl passed. martha's vineyard, 44 mile-per-hour wind gusts. so that definitely caused some minor damage. overall, nothing worse than, say, a typical strong nor'easter

that would come through during the winter time. got news is most people took this hurricane/tropical storm seriously and they prepared. they took boats out of the harbor. they took the lawn chair and furniture inside and out of harm's way. overall, a few reports of some minor power outages, trees knocked down. but overall, we pretty much dodged a bullet here as earl weakened as it passed through southeastern mass. alex? >> paul, it looks like it is swimming water out there. are you concerned about rip tides, heavy currents for swimmers potentially to day? >> reporter: we are. we're actually in chatham harbor. we're protected by a barrier island. it's not that difficult -- the surf is not that angry here. off to my left about a half mile, i can see the open atlantic and see 10 to 15-foot waves. there is a high surf advisory for the cape and martha's vineyard and rhode island coastline as well. and the rip current threat will be high right on through tonight.

hopefully diminishing as we head towards saturday and labor day monday. >> thanks for the live report. enjoy. thanks. one week from today the nation will mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. president obama will lead in country in mourning. it is not clear yet where he will mark the date. it is a delicate decision for any white house. how to honor the thousands of lost lives while avoiding the potential for political fallout? let's bring in jonathan allen. good saturday morning to you. >> good morning. >> what is the conversation underway right now in the white house about what the president's options are on 9/11? >> as you noted, there are a lot of options for the president. obviously, there are the actual sites, the pentagon where the president was last year, shenkzville, pennsylvania where the passengers forced their flight into the ground to avoid it crashing into a building elsewhere. obviously, ground zero. if you go back through history, actually, we've got quite a lot of 9/11 anniversaries as sort of

president oba prologue here. so it's not every year that the president necessarily goes to one of these spots or makes an oval office address. although obviously to remember the big anniversary, the first anniversary, the fifth anniversary and, of course, this -- the tenth anniversary coming up next year. >> what about, though, for this year with regard to the president's ability to go to ground zero? he's put himself right in the middle of this controversy in lower manhattan. can the president go to ground zero this year? >> i think the president of the united states can always go to ground zero. the question for the white house is whether it wants to listen to the political criticism that will take from some on the right if he does that or probably more likely simply renewal of that conversation about what's become known as the ground zero mosque. it's an issue where a lot of

democrats are actually frustrated with the president because he felt like that debate a few weeks ago really took democrats off message, had them talking about something that really wasn't the economy or what's top on voters minds right now. so i think that's the calculation more than anything. it's not that he can't go there or that he would face protest. but really more a matter of whether he might get distracted. the white house might get distracted other democrats might get redistracted by this ground zero mosque issue. >> i was wondering, any talk you're hearing about having the president say this year go to the pentagon, no turbulent waters around that area in terms of the site for the president and maybe just hit the tenth anniversary, you know, typically ten years is a big marking of any sort of event like that. go to ground zero next year? >> well, he was at the pentagon last year. we know the first lady's -- michelle obama and laura bush are going to pennsylvania to commemorate it there. it may be that that's the major public event this year. certainly ten years is going to be big.

and also, let me project forward a controversy for you, the 11th anniversary will happen smack dab in the middle of the 2012 race. you remember president obama and mccain going to ground zero together last year. we'll see how a sitting president handles that a few months before the re-election race. >> that's a good point. we look forward to that and a lot more with you. thank you. tony blair getting the cold shoulder at one of his book signings. we'll tell you what happened when he showed up. plus -- oh, my god. it's full on! double rainbow all the way across the sky! wow. you heard him laugh and cry on this viral video. now an update on the man known to many as the double rainbow guy. host: could switching to geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance?

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as many as 20,000 people visited a chapel every day and each visitor adds to the invisible cloud of dust, dirt, dandruff and other microscopic debris that floats to the ceiling. tribute bands are a staple of rock music. now they're making fans into rock stars in their own right while turning a profit. jane wells has more. ♪ on a summer afternoon in l.a., a park is packed with zeppelin fans. but this isn't led zeppelin. it's led zeppigan, a tribute band. it's in an era when some big names still won't put their music on itunes, tribute bands

are one of the few areas in music striking a chord with consumers. michael veil blum is a veteran music producer who worked with the likes of madonna and michael jackson back in the day. as the industry changed, he decided to see what people were interested in. he was shocked to see a club filled on a monday night for a tribute band. >> i thought to myself, you know, there's a whole market here. and i went to the lead singer. i said do people ask for cds? and he said oh, yeah. they ask for cds. but what we do is we send them down to tower records and tell them to buy the original artist. i'm like, why are you doing that? hand them a cd. take their money. >> reporter: a business was born. they recorded a cd at blum's music studio. >> it ended up on itunes. and suddenly we reached this huge base of led zeppelin fans that never heard of us, never seen us. they were notified to the country and other parts of the world. and the stuff started flying.

>> reporter: the band says they sold half a million down loads and it's all perfectly legal. under the copyright law, you can make and sell an audio sound alike recording of a commercially exploited song as long as you notify and pay the songwriter royalties. >> the company that represents the songwriter must give that you license. that's why it's a compulsory license under the copyright act. >> reporter: it's become an important source of income for sam morrison who does a bob seager tribute. >> he has an amazing voice. i do my best to try to sound as close to him as i can. ♪ working on a night move ♪ trying to make some front page drive in news ♪ >> reporter: the real bob seager doesn't put his songs on itunes. so why you can't buy this online -- ♪ waiting on the thunder >> reporter: more than 100,000 people have downloaded sam morrison's sound alike version.

>> we're kind of a bob seger franchise. you know what i mean? so it's like people can't go see him anymore, so they come see us. ♪ ooh, yeah >> reporter: every song he sells, bob seger, the songwriter gets a royalty. maybe that's one reason tribute bands have not had a backlash from the real bands. in fact, jimmy page has seen led zeppigan in concert and the real led zeppelin decided to sell songs online maybe after seeing how well the tributes were doing. >> i think we're actually helping them in some ways with their sales. >> got to love jane wells for that package. super cute twins made their public debut at a zoo in japan. the twin giant pandas have quadrupled their weight since born two weeks ago. now they each way one and a half pounds. the public will get a chance to see the brother and sister twice

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i'm alex witt. new zealand's prime minister says it was an absolute miracle no one was killed in a powerful earthquake in christ church. the quake hit yesterday. it could cost at least $1.4 billion to repair everything. a small plane in portland, oregon, stalling and then crashing nose first into a house. incredibly the 70-year-old pilot survived and able to walk away on his own. there was a woman in that house who remarkably she, too, escaped without serious injury. and australian lifeguards are on guard to watch for a school of sharks. the sharks were spotted by

helicopter yesterday. some of the sharks are 14 feet long. they're feeding on large schools of baitfish and tuna. tropical storm earl moved on from massachusetts. but not before pelting the coast with rain and wind. this morning there are a few hundred power outages and a handful of downed power lines. there's also some isolated flooding and low lying areas. earl has now set its sights on canada. that storm is currently making land fall in halifax. michelle franzen is live in chatham, massachusetts, surveying the left behind situation. not as intense as we expected. but it was a pretty rough knight, right? >> reporter: it was a rough night for a few hours. but certainly nothing too major. the cape, of course, in nantucket drying out very quickly this morning. a gorgeous day. cloudless sky at this point. and no evidence, too much evidence that earl had swirled through. but certainly earl's spin was no worse than a classic nor'easter in the end. of course, the winds kicked up

on nantucket. no more than 50 mile per hour gusts. as you mentioned, a few power outages. still, not very many downed trees or power lines. and no major damage that has come in at this hour. and also many people decided to keep their plans not only the vacationers and this last week leading up to labor day, but also for one married couple, a bride and groom that didn't let earl spoil their special day. >> it's incredible. we're very, very memorable. we had a fantastic week of weather and suddenly it's -- suddenly it turned as it is. it's given us plenty of challenges. but nothing is stopping us. >> reporter: and nothing is stopping everyone else from getting out today and enjoying this beautiful day. the main street down in chatham, aside from a few boards they put up, is open and ready for business. alex? >> all right. looks like a beautiful day. thank you very much for bringing that picture to us, michelle

franzen. we, of course, will continue to watch the latest impact of tropical storm earl. we'll bring you live reports at the top of the hour. a new statement from a taliban leader in pakistan warning the terror group is planning attacks in the u.s. and europe. a senior taliban commander tells the associated press he's proud the u.s. has added his organization to its international terrorism blacklist. he also says america should expect a fresh wave of attacks that would resemble the attempted time square bombing earlier this year. but just how credible is this threat? joining me now, nbc terrorism analyst evan coleman. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> are you wore idea aboried ab? >> there was a lot of skepticism that the pakistani taliban attempted that bombing. now was it the most sophisticated terrorist attack we've ever seen? no. it was failed. it was rather amateurish.

the nor they try this the better they're going to get. if you look at a video recording for which they took credit of times square, they didn't talk about this being one aack, they talked about it being the beginning of a series of attacks against the united states in -- inside u.s. borders. are they capable of doing this? we'll have to see. it really depends whether or not they're able to find more people like shahzad who are willing to do this stuff and competent enough to carry out a successful attack. shahzad was not the most competent person. maybe next time they will find someone who is more competent. >> and you think those people are already inside the united states planning, preparing, getting ready to do something? >> if you look at the way the pakistani taliban recruits, particularly the fact they're using youtube and internet to reach out to people here in the united states, it would seem that they recognize that trying to recruit someone who's a pakistani national, who's never been to the united states, it's just not going to work. they need someone who's already here. it happens, look, there's a lot

of pakistani americans out there. probably very few of whom will be recruited into something like this. but maybe they can find the nugget, you know, maybe they can find the needle in the hay stack. and that's what their numbers are. that's what the gamble is, that they can find somebody, at least one person to carry out something and draw attention to their cause. their missiles flying right now in pakistan aimed at pakistani taliban leaders. this is their idea of revenge, to carry out terrorist attacks inside u.s. borders. >> you and i talked about this countless time with regard to al qaeda. to what extent are the taliban, pakistani taliban, and the al qaeda different? their approach or their ability? >> the pakistani taliban are different from the afghan taliban in the sense that they're much more ideological. they're much closer to al qaeda than the afghan taliban. >> does that make them more troublesome? >> they are. they have a much closer relationship. what we've seen is increasing number of video recordings showing pakistani taliban leaders with al qaeda leaders, with leaders of other jihady

groups. even when it came to the attack on the camp champman, the killing of the cia agents by a suicide bomber, it's very interesting. after that bombing, there were videos released showing the bomber with the head of the pakistani taliban taking credit for the attack. and then there were also recordings released by al qaeda showing the same bomber with al qaeda leaders. so it's almost like there's an alliance going on here. how long can that alliance last? but at least right now, look, the pakistani taliban are not only backing up al qaeda on the ground in afghanistan and pakistan, but they're also trying to carry out terrorist attacks abroad. that is something the afghan taliban never did, has never really done. so that is a bit worrying. it is then an indication of the pakistani taliban are more of a problem than just what zeier stan or northwest pakistan. they do have aspirations of joining al qaeda and the groups that can carry out international terrorist attacks. >> okay. evan coleman, thank you very much. >> thank you. anti-war protesters hurled shoes and eggs as tony blair

arrived in ireland for a book signing of his memoir. scores of demonstrators chanted that blare had blood on his hands as the former british prime minister arrived at the d dublin bookstore. bristol palin can add a tonight show appearance to her hollywood gigs. the daughter is gearing up for her stint on "dancing with the stars." she's working to put her relationship with her headline grabbing ex behind her. we have all things bristol palin. good morning. >> good morning, alex. >> all things bristol palin. look, this is a girl we got to know back during the 2008 presidential election. the shots of her clapping very nicely. it was really the picture of beauty with her and levi johnson standing next to her. family all together. we know what happened since. now she's on this reinvention tour if i can coin my own phrase. she's going hollywood. >> please welcome bristol palin.

>> friday night, bristol palin's latest stop, jay leno's tonight show. >> were you disappointed it didn't work out. it seems like a few months ago you were on the cover of everything. you were engaged again. >> i'm not disappointed. i'm not heart broken. >> no? >> good to see a smile after the run she's had. after giving birth to her son trip, bristol and the baby's father levi johnston split up. but this summer announced their engagement as back on, giving this interview to "us weekly." >> it's been a fast process. i want to get married soon just so that we can live together and be together all the time. i hope we can all come together as a family. >> but just weeks later, bristol said the levi johnston came clean, admitted he may have fathered a baby with another woman. >> music video. >> then bristol found out he shot a music video mocking the palin family. so she dumped him, again. >> have you started rehearsing yet? >> yes. we've had three days of

rehearsals. >> and is it way harder than you thought or about the same? >> i expect i it to be hard work but i'm so uncoordinated and don't have any rhythm. so we're starting from scratch. >> she's alaska's most famous daughter. bristol palin. >> reporter: now bristol palin is on a tv blitz. competing on abc's "dancing with the stars" next season. >> bristol, i have to ask you, what does your mom think about you being on the show? >> she's excited for me. she knows this is going to be hard work but excited. >> will we be seeing her in the ballroom? >> hopefully. >> reporter: all this as her mother remains in the political spotlight with questions swirling about a possible run for president in 2012. >> the publicity surrounding bristol palin, her baby, her on again, off again relationship with levi johnston so make her look like a celebrity, gossip fodder as opposed to a serious politician. >> reporter: a young woman coming of age on national tv. and so expect to see a lot more

of her, perhaps, that uncoordinated dancing she was talking about. she can't be any more uncoordinated than me. but the big question now is does her mom bless all of these tv appearances? i'm really curious whether sarah palin is saying, yeah, go on "tonight show" or if she is off freelancing herself and how it will affect sarah palin if she decides to run for office again, possibly questions about a presidential run. >> my gut tells me as a mom, the latter remains to be seen. the former, i think her mom's got to know and say go do it. >> she dif good that interview to "us weekly" before she told sarah palin. >> she probably got an earful, too. >> you bet. >> thanks so much. an internet sensation is showing us his double rainbow outburst for a tv commercial. >> oh, my god, it's on. full on. double rainbow all the way

across the sky. >> so that is the expressive paul vasquez in the video that made him famous. a tearful tribute to a double rainbow he saw in his front yard. the video inspired countless parodies. and now windows is getting in on the action. they hired him to pitch new software. vazquez guarantees the software will make double rainbow photos come out the way they're supposed to, full on and all the way. well, first she was accused of crashing a white house party with her husband. and now she's crashing the pages of "playboy." tmz is reporting that she will appear nude in an upcoming issue of the magazine later this month. she will bear it all in the photo spread. sa la hee is part of the "real housewives of d.c." cast. can you believe this? [ animals calling ] ♪ [ pop ] [ man ] ♪ well, we get along

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to politics now. a new poll this week spells bad news for both parties in congress. 75% of americans say things could be better if congress was full of fresh faces. only 14% say things would be worse off. charlie cook is the editor of "the cook political report" and glad to see you this saturday morning. thanks for joining us. >> good to see you, alex. >> let's look at the house. your current outlook is for republicans to have a net gain of 35 seats. the gop needs 39 seats for majority status. so what is the outlook right now? >> if you go through and you look at it race by race by race, all 435, republicans are just about to the tipping point, the 39 seats they need to get control of the house. but if you look at it in terms of national polls, if you look at it in terms of enthusiasm, how much more enthusiastic republican voters are than democratic, when you look at how independents are swinging, it looks like it's going to go over that point. so my hunch is -- my hunch is

that we're going to go over the 39 point that republicans will get a majority. >> okay. is there anything that could happen between now and november to change the outlook? realistically speaking? would it be about anything other than the economy? >> it's hard to say. to see anything that could do this. democrats desperately need it. they needed the economy, unemployment to drop significantly. it hasn't happened. they needed attitudes towards health care reform to change significantly. hasn't happened. and after having focused on health care almost obsessively for a year, they needed to project a sense that the president that was in control of the agenda, had everything under control in washington. instead, they've been sort of going from one crisis to another. you know, events largely out of their control. but not being able to show sort of steady everything's going okay. so all the things that democrats had needed to have happen, none of them have really happened yet. >> okay. how about the senate? your current outlook is for gop

net gain of seven or nine seats. eight or nine would put the gop in majority. >> no, it would take a ten seat gain to get a majority. you know, two months ago, three months ago, four months ago there was very, very little chance of republicans getting a majority. now there's about a one in three chance that republicans could get there. they had -- they developed strong challenges against barbara boxer in california, patty murray in washington state, russ fine fold eingold i wisconsin. at the same time, harry reid came back to life. it is very exciting. my hunch is that democrats will hold on to the senate. but it's a lot closer call than it was a fau months ago. >> i forgot to factor in the contin independents in my math. right now we look at the midterms. you say gop is poised for a net

gain of six to eight seats? i mean that's pretty clear what a party majority can do in the senate or house. but why is the balance significant when it comes to governors' seats? >> well, the balance, you know, we would like to pretend that every state is even. but they're not. but the actual numerical thing to break down isn't so important. but the key thing about governors and state legislatures at this point and my hunch is republicans maybe picking up, say, 500 state legislative seats around the country. is that the governors in the state legislatures and most of these states, they're going to -- the ones elected today, this year, they're going to be drawing the lines next year, the congressional district and state legislative lines that will last a decade. and so governors and state legislative seats in this particular election are critically important. it looks like republicans are going to get some very, very strong gains. the thing is when your voters are coming out of the wood work and just can't wait to vote and the other side voters are down the mouth and independents,

they're energized one way, that helps candidates up and down the ballot. you're going to have, you know, democratic incumbents who have never been to washington except maybe on an eighth grade field trip that might get sucked under. and republicans who have never met a republican leader, you know, gets swept in. so weird things happen in these elections. >> well, you're glad you're with us all through it, charlie cook. >> are we announcing we're doing "dancing with the stars" alex? >> you and me both. it's out now. >> they're reinforcing the ballroom floor on my account. >> not at all. i'll dance with you anywhere, charlie cook. it will be a date at some point. thank you. the ipad is getting competition. can it stand up to the new pad on the block? and in our next hour, the new scathing "vanity fair" piece about sarah palin drawing fire from the former governor.

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so the first real

competition to apple's ipad is set to hit stores in the few weeks. they call the tab slick and well designed. it is powered by google's software and has a smaller seven inch screen. how does it stack up against the ipad? let's get the details now from dan akerman. and with a good morning to you. >> good morning. >> i want your expert opinion. what do you think? >> well, this is really one of the first tablets to come out stha people are taking seriously as an ipad competitor. sam sung, they make really good mobile phones. they're hoping they can take that mobile phone know how and turn into a tablet. >> what do you think? >> the problem with the android tablets is they run on google's operating system. they have different sizes. this one is seven inch. other are ten inch, some are five inch. so the apps and programs on it can't really be built for a specific screen size. it's not quite as slick an application platform as the ipad is. >> you're giving me disadvantages. do you see advantages? >> definitely has advantages. unlike the ipad, this new

samsung tablet has two cameras on it. one on the back for taking pictures, one on the front for doing video conferences. >> okay. that's interesting. can you do all the same things as the ipad on this galaxy? >> you can't really do the same thingsment you have to get your applications from the android app store which is a very good app store and growing a lot. it's nowhere near as big as the iphone or the ipad app store. you won't have access to the same programs. >> i guess it sounds to me like you're saying maybe wait a little bit? i mean it's going to take a while for the galaxy to get up to speed with the ipad? >> the galaxy and other android tablets, they'll be coming out around the holiday season, if you have an android phone you like, then you'll like the android tablets. they're the same thing much it's like an android flown just blown up. but if you love the ipad and the specific apps they have, you won't be able to get those unless they make a special version. >> the price, cheaper? >> we thought the samsung would be really expensive. now they come back and said it's going to be pretty inexpensive.

maybe $300, maybe a little bit more. so competitive even less than the ipad. but it is also smaller. >> okay. thanks for the heads up. >> thank you. the cleanup in new zealand after a powerful earthquake. we're going to show you the latest damage at the top of the hour. plus restoring rinse. it's the only listerine® that gets teeth two shades whiter. and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual action listerine® whitening® rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. [ male announcer ] at ge capital, we're out there every day with clients like jetblue -- financing their fleet, sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america. after 25 years in the aviation business, i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? take one of the big ones out? nah.

stay twice... earn a free night! two separate stays at comfort inn or any of these choice hotels can earn you a free night -- only when you book at choicehotels.com. can earn you a free night -- no oil has flowed into the gulf for weeks, but it's just the beginning of our work. i'm iris cross. bp has taken full responsibility for the clean up in the gulf and that includes keeping you informed. my job is to listen to the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel and restaurant workers and find ways to help. that means working with communities. we have 19 centers in 4 states. we've made over 120,000 claims payments, more than $375 million. we've committed $20 billion to an independent claims fund to cover lost income until people impacted can get back to work. we'll keep looking for oil, cleaning it up if we find it and restoring the gulf coast.